4/8 - Straddled

[TheCinciKid 0]

Well put. I am kind of new to playing LHE, but wouldn't you have a smaller range of hands the looser the table is?

I want to address this because I think it's fairly important to a newer player and got lost in the whole straddling discussion. Which, IMO, was rather silly. Anybody who's a winning player knows straddling is -EV, except in very specific situations (i.e. the whole table is doing it, or it's a tight/good game and you need to loosen up your image a little bit...of course, neither of these were the case in the OP). I think we can all agree that the straddle was a mistake and move. Anyway, onto the new LHE players' question. In fact, the opposite of what you posted is true. The looser the table, especially in LHE, the more hands you want to play pre-flop. Even when LHE games were really good online, I played many more hands pre-flop in live games than I did online. Granted, you need to play well postflop or it really won't matter, but in a loose game you can play many more hands profitably than you can in a tight game. In a loose LHE game you're really trying to make two pair or better. Therefore, straights and flushes are really important. Hence, you should be playing a lot of suited hands (connectors, one gappers, many two gappers and basically any suited A or K in a decently loose game). You should also probably be pl.aying some offsuit connectors, depending on position and how good you are postflop. Of course, if you're further interested in the subject you should definitely read Small Stakes Hold'em. It will explain these concepts much better than I can in one post.

[gouldjr27 0]

Cinci, thanks for the reply. Like I said I am fairly new to LHE, but have played tons of NL. I used to be anti-limit games, but I have really come around. Have you read the new Super System with the re-written LHE section by Jennifer Harman?

[TheCinciKid 0]

Cinci, thanks for the reply. Like I said I am fairly new to LHE, but have played tons of NL. I used to be anti-limit games, but I have really come around. Have you read the new Super System with the re-written LHE section by Jennifer Harman?

Yeah, I've read Harman's section in SS2. Don't remember getting a ton out of it, but it's been a while. It certainly doesn't have much application to the kind of game described in this post. It does probably have application to the LHE games currently being played online.

[tuckermitchell 1]

The first question I had before the straddle issue was if this is a table where people "don't even raise AA because they figure they would lose more money" then what can villain's possibly have. In any case, I call ATC oop all day. Eff the haters.